Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1) to (4), as circulated in my name, together:

(1) Schedule 6, items 13 and 14, page 37 (lines 6 to 9), omit the items.

(2) Schedule 6, item 15, page 37 (lines 31 and 32), omit "the end of the financial year to which the record relates", substitute "the responsible person's report under section 130ZZC in relation to the financial year to which the record relates is given to the ACMA".

(3) Schedule 6, item 16, page 38 (lines 13 and 14), omit the item, substitute:

16 Subsection 130ZZE(1)

  Omit "2015", substitute "2016".

16A Subsection 130ZZE(3)

  Omit "2016", substitute "2017".

(4) Schedule 6, item 17, page 38 (lines 32 to 34), omit subitem (5).

As I foreshadowed in my contribution to the debate, these amendments are designed to address concerns raised by deaf advocacy groups. They consist of, firstly, restoring the requirement for free-to-air broadcasters to report annually on their compliance with captioning obligations and, secondly, restoring the statutory review of captioning to occur in 2016 in order to allow a comprehensive review of all the issues that concern the deaf community as well as broadcasters.

This has been the subject of consultation by me and my office with advocacy groups as well as broadcasters, and I think this is a reasonable compromise. It has also been the subject of discussion between me and the minister and our two offices. I would like to thank the minister and the minister's office for the work they have done on this, and I thank the government for their support.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.